The demand for fabric softeners has grown very substantially in the past few years and it is said that a majority of the households in the United States use some type of fabric softener in the washing of fabrics. For convenience of use, the fabric softener should be compatible with the commonly used detergents. It is not easy to find a fabric softener which is compatible with the detergents commonly used or if it be compatible, which will not disturb the effectiveness of the detergents. Further difficulty arises because the fabric softening composition must not have other shortcomings such as objectionable odor or tendency to stain fabrics. Compositions which may be found to be compatible with detergents may be found to be unstable or may be found to stain fabrics or produce yellowing or graying of the fabrics, or they may be found to have an undesirable odor or objectionable color. Substantially all of the fabric softening compositions tend to kill the effect of the perfume which may be added to the wash or contained in the softening composition itself.
A softener composition which would overcome the difficulties above mentioned and satisfy the requirements above referred to has long been needed but has not been available in the prior art. The search for such a composition has further been complicated by the fact that no ingredient can be counted on to perform its previously known function when incorporated in a different combination of ingredients. It is common that when two ingredients are combined, one of them may nullify the effect of the other one, or their combination may produce an effect which is quite foreign to either of them. It is usually impossible to tell, for example, if any previously untried combination will or will not stain the fabric in some way.